Guild Wars 2

As the title says, for some reason my monitor will randomly go to sleep while in game. Sometimes it comes back on, sometimes it does not, although I have sound, which forces me to hard-restart my computer. Sometimes I can sit down and play for hours at a time without this happening, other times it happens immediately.

The latest occurrence of this has led to my monitor going back on, and me being able to tab back in to game, but a few seconds later the sound froze, and my computer completely crashed.

I have been checking temps while playing the game normally to find if this was the issue, and my temps are completely stable while playing. These types of monitor glitches/crashes have also happened right after playing other games, so it must be some sort of issue specifically with my system and the game.

If anyone can assist me with this issue, it would be greatly appreciated.

The monitor “sleeping” while the computer is on is the result of the video card turning off, likely due to the graphics drivers crashing and failing to recover. Uninstall/clean install your graphics drivers. Disable any overlays or graphic mods/enhancers if you’re using any. Your video card may be simply dying. If its an overclocked model, you may want to underclock it as a test.

Healix.5819:

The monitor “sleeping” while the computer is on is the result of the video card turning off, likely due to the graphics drivers crashing and failing to recover. Uninstall/clean install your graphics drivers. Disable any overlays or graphic mods/enhancers if you’re using any. Your video card may be simply dying. If its an overclocked model, you may want to underclock it as a test.

I tried a clean driver install as you suggested, but I still have the issue.

If it was an issue of my GPU dying, then I would have the problem in all games wouldnt I? I have only had this problem while in GW2.

I have submitted a ticket with the issue and am awaiting a reply, but if anyone else can assist me with this issue in the meantime it would be greatly appreciated.

OneOhOne.6083:

If it was an issue of my GPU dying, then I would have the problem in all games wouldnt I?

Not necessarily. I’ve had a dying video card before that would work on certain games, but not others. Oddly, it was the older/less demanding games that caused it to crash. As time passed, the issue would get worse and worse (crashing would happen more frequently) to a point that all games would eventually crash. Even simply playing a video would cause it to crash. I knew there was a problem with my card however. It came overclocked and was known to have manufacturing issues, so as a result, I underclocked it to below its original settings, which let it live for another ~2 years.

Since support will likely tell you to do this anyways…

I’m assuming this is not a laptop and you are running Windows?

For starters, about the clean install. Restart the computer in safe mode to uninstall the drivers. Restart the computer, then install the drivers. You can start in safe mode by tapping F8 during boot, before Windows starts to load. Alternatively, while in Windows, you can press WindowsKey+R, open msconfig and select safe boot under the boot tab.

Delete the folder %appdata%/Guild Wars 2/ and the file, if it exists, Documents/Guild Wars 2/Local.dat. This is where your hardware related settings are stored. Basically, your video settings will be reset. In some cases, old settings have caused problems.

In case of other programs causing the problem, press WindowsKey+R and open msconfig. Under the services tab, check “Hide all Microsoft services” then click disable all. Under the startup tab, click disable all. Reboot the computer to start with these programs/services disabled, then try it. To undo this, simply do this in reverse.

If you know what you’re doing, pop out the video card and ensure there isn’t a problem with the contacts or dust in the slot, then reseat it.

If you have a free storage device, I would suggest quickly installing Windows and any required drivers, then trying to play the game on that. It’s the easiest/fastest way to rule out any software related problems.